Unmade in America

Millions of manufacturing jobs have disappeared across America since 2000, evaporating in a furnace-like blast of economic upheaval.

Assembly line workers attach tires to General Motors vehicles during the early 1920s, showing to labor-intensive approach to manufacturing common to the era in Detroit, Mich. (SHNS photo courtesy University of Michigan's Bentley Historical Library.)

Chad Moutray, chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers, concludes a toxic mix of recession, fierce global competition and rising production costs have curtailed U.S. manufacturing. But America still leads the world in manufacturing. "Twenty-one percent of the value of all manufactured goods come from the United States," Moutray said. (SHNS photo by Thomas Hargrove)

Bob Baugh, executive director of the Industrial Union Council for the AFL-CIO, concludes the decline in U.S. manufacturing has been "a disaster. We have lost 6 million manufacturing jobs. We have just wasted it away." (SHNS photo by Thomas Hargrove)

A laser welding robot on the body-assembly line at a high tech plant in Bursa, Turkey, operated jointly by Fiat and PSA Peugeot Citroen in 2007. (SHNS photo courtesy of PSA Peugeot Citroen.)

A lone assembly line worker labors on an engine block at a General Motors plant in Detroit, Mich., during the 1930s. (SHNS photo courtesy University of Michigan's Bentley Historical Library.)